You would think it would be fairly simple, you make a list, you go to the grocery store and buy what is on the list. Not so simple is it? How much on average a week do you think a family of four spends on groceries? Answer: roughly 150.00 or 600.00 a month, now how much of that do you suppose goes to waste? how much is spent towards house hold items; cleaning supplies, hygiene supplies, pet food and supplies the like.
I have a family of 3 (well 6 if you include 3 cats) and I try very hard to maintain a 90.00 a week budget. Yep 60.00 below average. Some weeks I do eh some not so much. I don't use a lot of coupons because quite honestly I forget to take them. I do however diligently price check, and shop around.
In my last post I showed you pictures of my price lists, they really do exist, I really did do all the leg work and they really do help me at least. Again I am not that organized I promise you but I want to be able to feed my kids and myself relatively healthy and for as little as I can possibly spend. I try very hard not to buy a lot of processed items, boxed meals that type of thing,with my type 2 diabetes I do not know for sure which foods will trigger it in a bad way so I tend to play it safe when I can. I know that sounds crazy but it's just better for us all around the less processed junk you eat the better you will feel really.
So when I left off my last post we had gone through about everything we had in the house, it was time to grocery shop , yep the dreaded "g" word as it's known around here. I really am not good at it I fake it very well some times. Key's for me; knowing what things cost in advance, scouring the store web sites and fliers for sales, and adjusting on the fly depending on what is on sale or isn't. For me, at least, the key is being flexible. I can sit down and get a "rough" idea of what I want to fix for meals that week, but I always have to keep my mind open to being flexible enough to change course if something I counted on is out of stock or not on sale.
I do make a list yes, there are things that I simply can not or will not buy generic on; toilet paper( did this will NOT do it again ..owch) , sweetener, cereal everything else is pretty much fair game. One of the hardest adjustments for my daughter was being less of a food snob. For the longest time she would eat only Kraft Mac n cheese, or certain cereals, now she is getting better not by choice much LOL. My son not so much he tries everything at least once.
One of the other things that ties in with this, is what you cook. Figure out what your go to dishes are, stock up on those ingredients and then play. As I said in earlier posts this has really reignited my passion for cooking, in our house we have "experimental food' night at least once a week. More so lOL when the supplies are running low somethings are wonderful and there have been a few flops I will admit it but not many.
So I make my list, here again it comes in hand to know roughly what you already have in the house. I will post pic's of my list it hangs on the inside of my pantry door and really as I use stuff I do mark it off or check it so I know i need to stock up. Once you have a vague idea of what you want to make, what you already have on hand the list becomes a little simpler. I try to allow a certain amount in my budget for unexpected sales, this too goes along with the willingness to be flexible about what you want to feed everyone for the week.
For instnace; the grocery trip I'm talking about above, when my daughter and I went,we found an unadvertised sale on chicken breasts bone out skin off, I stocked up mulitpurpose ingredient here really it is. And chicken being chicken you can make it take any flavor or spice you choose. They also had sirloin tip roasts (a hellaciously big treat in our house ) on sale so there you go. It changed my menu drastically but I still managed to stay on budget only going over by .10. Okay okay die hards yes an overage is an overage but when it's a dime I'll take the hit and be proud of myself.
Have I rambled too far off course, such is the lot with an ADD brain like mine.
Once at the store I do try very hard to stick to the list, for me it's easier if I take no one with me then I'm not as tempted to throw extra items in. Although my daughter is pretty good when she goes with me so it all works out
Once home the meat I process down , if I buy in bulk like the chicken breasts I portion it out to four servings per freezer bag, that is one each for us and an extra the kid's can split or left overs for chicken salad or something similar. I do the same thing with ground beef and the chuck roasts I cut at least one or two up into stew beef sized chunks.
One of our bigger expenses is snacks for the kids, my daughter will snack on frozen veggies this I encourage my son well he is a teen age boy so we are still working on that part.
I cook abou 5 days out of 7 I try to have over the weekend a turkey breast, or ham so that we can just graze and not feel obligated to make a big meal. It does not always work but hey we try.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Learning TO Be Poor: Preparing for the grocery haul
Oh the sense of dread is almost over whelming. Did I mention I HATE to grocery shop..no really I loathe it, I'd rather be beaten with a spiked stick. First of all, let me say I have NEVER been a good grocery shopper, I forget the list and coupons at home, I impulse buy what can I say I suck at it.
However, over the course of starting this adventure I have gotten better. I still forget the coupons, (Its okay I know I will never be an extreme couponer LOL) but I have learned you can't put all your eggs in one basket so to speak. You have to compare prices, you have to do your research like any purchase. Sad isn't it. To buy food you need to do research. Ugh.
So how do you research for groceries? Well LOL it's not that hard. Okay the next time you grocery shop at your favorite store, when you get home make note of the prices of things you regularly buy, then just start price comparing. I have a note book just your average spiral notebook and I have three sections, one for Wal-Mart, Meijers and Aldi's the three stores I shop at most. It is time consuming I won't kid you but its well worth it. I will post pictures of it later today. I update it every time I grocery shop so it is current. Okay let me say this,I know it seems like a lot of unnecessary work but for me at least,it is an important thing that i have even a very rough idea of what things cost. I have a limited budget to feed my family on every month about 360.00 do the math that's roughly 90.00 a week. I NEED to know what things cost in order to best spend what I allow myself.
Okay so how should I best approach explaining this, really I don't have a clue I write like I talk which I'm sure makes this a ton of fun to read. I think, best approach I start with the basics of what I do to figure out what the hell I am going shopping for so if I ramble forgive me and bear with me this will probably be posted ,edited, re-posted, re-edited you get the idea.
SO let's start;
First I have to admit I am not that organized I really am not. This is probably the ONLY area in my house or my life that is truly systematic and organized and only because if it's not it isn't possible.
Before I could even begin to try and slash my grocery budget and not sacrifice quality meals I had to figure out the following;
1. What did I already have in the house
2. What did I make frequently
3. Where was I wasting money (buying food and not using to it's full potential)
4. Where could I make reasonable cuts without again sacrificing quality, taste or nutrition
5. What could we absolutely NOT get rid of ( I am a diabetic I can't or shouldn't do real sugar so you get the idea.)
From there it was time to take "stock" literally of what I had in the house. At the time I started this I had a 7 cubic foot freezer about 1/4 of the way full of meat. My first sub goal (is that a word) was to use the meat I had in the house before I bought more. It wasn't a hard thing to do there was a mix of chicken, pork and beef so possibilities were endless. Then came the task of going through the pantry and I can tell you it was a hodge podge of nothing you would think you could make a meal out. As I went through each the chest freezer,the pantry,the freezer on the fridge I was making lists. Time consuming? A bit yes but definitely necessary. Once the lists were complete I had an exact idea of what there was food wise in the house. I then set out to plan to some degree what I could make to use what we had.
In the past I was one to just shop wildly. I would make a list yes but I never really stuck to it, nor did I price shop or any of that. Now absolutely but I digress.
In making the menu I re-discovered the sheer joy and peace I find when cooking, something that had been largely forgotten while I lived in a construction zone. I dug out mom's cook books, my own, poured over numerous foodie sites on the web and had a good idea of what I could do that would at least get the kid's to try it and that type of thing.
By the time I was done , and this did take some time ,about a day to get the lists and find palatable recipes, I had enough stocked in the house for roughly four to five weeks (Scary isn't it) and my intention and ultimate goal was to use every morsel of it I could.
I won't tell you we did not have some um "mistakes" in the dishes I prepared but for the most part the kids were good sports and at least tried everything I made. Side perk my cooking repitoir was and continues to grow.
By the end of the four weeks the house was truly almost out of food and it was time to grocery shop. Ugh is all I can say i was so not looking forward to it at all. Did I mention I hate to grocery shop?
The dreaded grocery list and believe me this time it was most certainly dreaded. As I sat pondering over what I thought most likely would happen I knew my habits as a shopper had to change. I did what anyone do, I started searching the internet about better ways, more efficient ways to grocery shop and save money while I was doing it. Stay tuned for more....
However, over the course of starting this adventure I have gotten better. I still forget the coupons, (Its okay I know I will never be an extreme couponer LOL) but I have learned you can't put all your eggs in one basket so to speak. You have to compare prices, you have to do your research like any purchase. Sad isn't it. To buy food you need to do research. Ugh.
So how do you research for groceries? Well LOL it's not that hard. Okay the next time you grocery shop at your favorite store, when you get home make note of the prices of things you regularly buy, then just start price comparing. I have a note book just your average spiral notebook and I have three sections, one for Wal-Mart, Meijers and Aldi's the three stores I shop at most. It is time consuming I won't kid you but its well worth it. I will post pictures of it later today. I update it every time I grocery shop so it is current. Okay let me say this,I know it seems like a lot of unnecessary work but for me at least,it is an important thing that i have even a very rough idea of what things cost. I have a limited budget to feed my family on every month about 360.00 do the math that's roughly 90.00 a week. I NEED to know what things cost in order to best spend what I allow myself.
Okay so how should I best approach explaining this, really I don't have a clue I write like I talk which I'm sure makes this a ton of fun to read. I think, best approach I start with the basics of what I do to figure out what the hell I am going shopping for so if I ramble forgive me and bear with me this will probably be posted ,edited, re-posted, re-edited you get the idea.
 |
| Price list for Walmart |
 |
| Price list for Aldi's |
SO let's start;
First I have to admit I am not that organized I really am not. This is probably the ONLY area in my house or my life that is truly systematic and organized and only because if it's not it isn't possible.
Before I could even begin to try and slash my grocery budget and not sacrifice quality meals I had to figure out the following;
1. What did I already have in the house
2. What did I make frequently
3. Where was I wasting money (buying food and not using to it's full potential)
4. Where could I make reasonable cuts without again sacrificing quality, taste or nutrition
5. What could we absolutely NOT get rid of ( I am a diabetic I can't or shouldn't do real sugar so you get the idea.)
From there it was time to take "stock" literally of what I had in the house. At the time I started this I had a 7 cubic foot freezer about 1/4 of the way full of meat. My first sub goal (is that a word) was to use the meat I had in the house before I bought more. It wasn't a hard thing to do there was a mix of chicken, pork and beef so possibilities were endless. Then came the task of going through the pantry and I can tell you it was a hodge podge of nothing you would think you could make a meal out. As I went through each the chest freezer,the pantry,the freezer on the fridge I was making lists. Time consuming? A bit yes but definitely necessary. Once the lists were complete I had an exact idea of what there was food wise in the house. I then set out to plan to some degree what I could make to use what we had.
In the past I was one to just shop wildly. I would make a list yes but I never really stuck to it, nor did I price shop or any of that. Now absolutely but I digress.
In making the menu I re-discovered the sheer joy and peace I find when cooking, something that had been largely forgotten while I lived in a construction zone. I dug out mom's cook books, my own, poured over numerous foodie sites on the web and had a good idea of what I could do that would at least get the kid's to try it and that type of thing.
By the time I was done , and this did take some time ,about a day to get the lists and find palatable recipes, I had enough stocked in the house for roughly four to five weeks (Scary isn't it) and my intention and ultimate goal was to use every morsel of it I could.
I won't tell you we did not have some um "mistakes" in the dishes I prepared but for the most part the kids were good sports and at least tried everything I made. Side perk my cooking repitoir was and continues to grow.
By the end of the four weeks the house was truly almost out of food and it was time to grocery shop. Ugh is all I can say i was so not looking forward to it at all. Did I mention I hate to grocery shop?
The dreaded grocery list and believe me this time it was most certainly dreaded. As I sat pondering over what I thought most likely would happen I knew my habits as a shopper had to change. I did what anyone do, I started searching the internet about better ways, more efficient ways to grocery shop and save money while I was doing it. Stay tuned for more....
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